Ohio State Football: Week 5 unit grades for Penn State game

Fourth Quarter:

Offense

Excuse me for a second while I go off on a little bit of a rant on Ohio State’s offensive play calling.

Why in the world, when you need a foot on a fourth down would you call a play out of a shotgun? The quarterback sneak is still a legal play in football and it is an easy way to gain a yard. When the Buckeyes dropped back into the shotgun everyone knew what was coming.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system how were the Buckeyes able to pull that one out? It wasn’t a mystery as to why the Buckeye offense was struggling, the offensive line play was just sub par throughout the majority of the game. Dwayne Haskins didn’t have much time to get the ball out of his hands, and when he did it was generally an inaccurate pass.

The beginning of the fourth quarter looked grim for the Buckeye offense but they finally seemed to figure Penn State out. The blocked a little bit better when it mattered in the fourth, and got the ball to the play-makers in space.

Benjamin Victor found some space and had an amazing run after the catch to the house for a 47 yard touchdown.

Then on the very next drive, the Buckeyes were able to administer a 96 yard drive ending in a KJ Hill touchdown catch that gave the Buckeyes the 27-26 lead. The best play call of the entire game came on first down from their own on this drive for the Buckeyes.

A screen pass to JK Dobbins that got us on the other side of the 50. 96 yards sounds like a daunting task but getting a play like this on the first play of the drive makes it a whole ;ot easier.

We aren’t going to talk about the two point conversion debacle that followed because it would give me a headache, and it didn’t matter in the end. Thankfully.

The Buckeyes were able to make plays when it mattered most and get the comeback win in the face of thousands of Penn St fans.

Grade: A 

Defense 

Talk about giving us a roller coaster of emotions.

After not allowing Penn State to score a point in the third quarter, Trace McSorley made the linebacker crew look like swiss cheese, getting away on multiple runs and putting together two touchdown scoring drives.

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Down 26-14 with around 8 minutes left in the game, things looked bleak for Ohio State. But the offense finally came through down the stretch, and the defense now equipping the QB spy at the end of the game, after mysteriously getting rid of it at the beginning of the fourth quarter, was able to make some key stops.

The stop that was most key, obviously, was the final drive for Penn St. It was a tense situation on both sides. But can we talk about the final offensive play for Penn St?

It was 4th and 5 and a must have or they lose the game.

Both teams spend a time out and James Franklin draws up, a read option play? After all of my criticisms of Ohio State’s play calling, I can definitively say that was by far the worst play call of the day.

In the end, the Silver Bullets put a stop to McSorely’s tactics, and therefore iced the game.

Grade: B+

Special Teams:

Overall the special teams came up huge in this game and that includes the fourth quarter. Punt and kick covers were outstanding, providing a complete turnaround from the special teams debacle in Columbus last year.

Drue Chrisman had an outstanding game, not missing on any of his punts, and trust me there were a lot of them. Amazing job by Urban’s unit.

Grade: A